The Fountainhead

Discuss the business philosophy of the Banner newspaper and the personal value Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Banner.

What can you say about the way he is running his newspaper business, citing his good and bad deeds as an owner? Can you pinpoint a particular incident that would show that his action or series of actions is/are based on the utilitarian philosophy? Also, you present some ethical principles that were evident in the movie.

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Gail Wynand grew up on the streets of Hell's Kitchen in New York. He becomes a newspaper man and by the age of 36 controls an empire of newspapers and other media outlets. His paper, theBanner, appeals to the lowest common denominator, and it makes no attempt to do anything beyond satisfying the desires of the mob. Gail Wynand's ultimate goal is to acquire power over as many people as he can, but he does not realize that his power only exists while he is telling the people what they want to hear.

Wynand is the great tragic hero of The Fountainhead. He was a brilliant youth whose innovative ideas were always greeted with derision by the short-sighted men he worked for. Consequently, he came to believe that the only chance for pioneering thinkers was to gain power over the corrupt fools who, in his view, ruled human society. The result was the profoundly sad spectacle of Wynand’s brilliantly original mind used for the degraded purpose of acquiring power over others.

Source(s)

http://www.gradesaver.com/the-fountainhead/study-guide/character-list http://aynrandnovels.org/learning-more/the-fountainhead/fountainhead-faq.html